The Scotsman leads today with the ongoing financial crisis at Dundee university: “Job loss tally at Dundee University rises to 700 staff in “devastating” update.”
The crisis in UK higher education (there is, a la Trump, a different one in the USA) is, and was always predictable. I remember a faculty meeting here in Edinburgh, close to a quarter of a century ago, when the Head of College was promising good times ahead after a short period of ‘lean times’. This was always a mis-reading about what was going on: New Labour and fees was always a vehicle for financialiasation of higher education. Market discipline and all that.
What was happened is not what was promised: a catastrophic drop in standards; a system that fails to deliver for many, if not most, students; obscene student debt; irreversible damage to the status of UK higher education, and the dismantling of meaningful vocational training and alternative pathways to higher education via the Open University. Higher education is not a panacea for social engineering nor a ‘just add water and mix’ solution for the longstanding failure of UK industry and industrial management policies in the UK.
Note: Dundee is “Scottish University of the Year 2025.” Says it all.
